By now we should all know that Michelins summer-bias all season tyre is different.
Traditionally all season tyres start as winter tyres, and have a little extra dry and wet performance added into the mix. While this leaves traditional winter-bias all season tyres performing excellently in the snow, they give up around 15% dry braking performance when compared to a summer tyre, which affects braking for the 200+ days dry running we get in the UK.
The summer-bias Michelin CrossClimate started life as a summer tyre, and as such does not give up the dry braking performance traditional all season tyres do. Does this mean they don't perform in the snow and ice? We head off to the Swiss Alps to find out.
Still no news on the new CrossClimate + (plus)?
I've seen they are already on sale.
The EU label has changed a bit, wet braking going down from A to B rating (perhaps better snow performance?) and the noise level is up by one decibel.
Keep an eye on the site tomorrow (Thursday 19th), we'll have our "what's new with the CrossClimate+" live at some point during the day :)
http://www.tyrereviews.co.u...
Great, thanks :D
After 2 years of driving on Crossclimates in the UK, gentle driving in light car (Yaris) the tyres have been excellent in the wet, lasted well and fine in summer (not spanked). Not too bad on muddy tracks too. However, I never had the chance for ice and snow and although the reports were good they always reminded me more of a rain tyre.
So finally 1 day of snow and ice in two years in the SE of England, which is why I bought them, the one time you need to get home, if it is not gridlocked. Or just want to walk the dog, without worrying, in the woods. So I went up a B road, rather nervously, and they just laughed it off. Even stopping uphill to let another car by with the passenger side on snow ice and the driver side on better grip, which is not ideal, was fine.
I think this sector of the market could really take off for the UK. We have far more sunny and wet days than snow, so the tyre should be biased heavily towards that, but on the off chance of snow impress again.
These tyres are a really jack of all trades for A to B cars in the UK. A big compliment.
"I've gone too far... I have regrets..." :D
The drone footage at that point is a bit odd, as at some angles you can kind of sense the gradient of the hill, but at others it looks fairly shallow...
The all season weathers tire: not good in summer,not good in winter condition,
A high quality all season tyre could be a good compromise, depending on weather in your region. I see Michelin Cross Climate one of them. In the summer is as good as a summer tyre, and in mild winter could be even better than a winter tyre in certain weaher conditions.
And of course, instead of wearing poor quality all season tyres (most of them) on my car, I'd rather wear summer/winter tyres.
CrossClimate vs. Vector 4?
I am using my car (fwd, 205 55 R16)
At winter, min -10C in winter, generally there is no snow except 3-4 days, wet or black iced surface mostly.
At summer 35-40C, dry surface.
In that summer condition, i need to trust the tire which im using. Which one do you recommend?
For hot summer days and also for mild winters the Cross Climate seems to be better than Vector 4S.
I think if I was seeing a 50 celcius change between summer and winter, I'd just bite the bullet and invest in decent summer tyres from spring to autumn (say, when temperatures were 15'C and up...), and full winters from autumn to spring (under 15'C...)
I'm fairly well convinced of the benefit of something like the CrossClimate for typical British / coastal mid-north european conditions, where the variation is more like 0 to 25'C on the whole (ie, *half* what you experience), and truly bitter subzero temperatures or really scorching days are an exception to the rule - minus ten or plus forty are events that people end up talking about decades later... but you still have to deal with roads that are both cold enough to compromise summer tyres and do occasionally freeze over, then six months later are hot enough to leave full winter tyres suffering poor roadholding and accelerated wear.
I've had multiseason tyres before and they worked quite well, but there was still a suggestion that they were tuned for cooler air than what we actually get; on top of other prior experience with midrange Michelins radically improving the roadholding of an otherwise mediocre small car, this could be the perfect solution.
...too bad they don't seem to come in 175/60 R15 for some reason, so I'm going to have to get a slightly different size (unless a suitable competitor can be found?) and hope the fitting garage will agree to put them on.
Thanks for video. As far as I saw, the Audi A3 is not quattro, that is even better, because, I am 100% sure now that I have chosen right tires for my car (Audi A6 front wheel drive). In front of me is long trip as well and I am now peaceful.
Many thaks for your review.
Novak
Correct, the Audi in the test was front wheel drive only. Sorry, we should have made that clear!
Did you test the aquaplanning resistance? For what I've read in several forums and test, it's worse in this particular size, 225/45 R17.
It looks like it's the biggest issue with the Crossclimate. Enough to worry if you live in an área with roads tending to drench?
Sadly we didn't have chance to make any objective measurements on this trip.
Aquaplaning performance is a concern when compared to the best tyres on test, however two things are worth keeping in mind.
The gap in aquaplaning results between the best all season tyre on test will be reduced when both tyres are at 7mm (the starting depth of the CrossClimate), and research from a European University specialising in accidentology found less than 1% of all accidents are due to aquaplaning.
As always, you should make your tyre choice based on your own driving conditions and requirements. If you value aquaplaning performance highly, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-2 is probably the best choice for you.
I would say the biggest issue with CC now is rather the only new tread
depth with approx. 7 mm (Michelin hotline says 7,4 mm), in compare to
usual 8-9,x mm with other brands. Although Michelin is known for
generally excellent long tyres longevity (and the CC model derives
originally from Energy Saver+ model), here some citizens &
businesses in some EU countries with legal limit 4mm for winter climate
will answer the original article question "Does the Michelin
CrossClimate really work in all conditions?" with conditional yes, but
adding "just for 1-2 years in relation to winter climate...". That's how
I undestand the upcoming February 2017 update via CC+ with higher
longevity promise.
Looking at the wear tests, you get at least as much, if not more usable life with the CrossClimate as you do with and of the key competitors.
We will certainly have more information early next year with the launch of the CrossClimate+
Still a bit of a cheek to use that as an excuse for providing upto 2mm less than you'd expect from other makes/models though, isn't it...!
I have driven my car with Crossclimate in heavy rain and their behavior were excellent
How about snow cornering?
I Know the CC have a good traction, but the cornering force is not that good
To write objectively about snow handling we would need to run a full test.
Fortunately the Michelin CrossClimate has been tested a number of times in a number of situations, all of which can be found on this page at the "all tests" tab
Well, I think I also found on these test whether the CC is good for snow or not, so I don´t understand your test ;)
Logic is saying that some minor issues found out in the previous tests will be tackled by its successor CC +, coming to market already from February 2017 on. Quite an early update though.
While we agree with your logic, having spoken to Michelin about the CC+ this update is aimed at further improving mileage and "whole life" performance rather than improving any handling characteristics.
Yeah, I think if Michelin try to eliminate the weak points of the CC they will also lost the strong points.
Everyone have to find out which points are more important than other points.
If you live in part of the country with less snow you will go for the CC, if you have harder climate you will go for one of the all season tyres which are more like a winter tyre like Goodyear Vector, Nokian Weatherproof.
Or simply stay with sommer and winter tyres
I think if you're going fast enough on snow for the tyre's cornering abilities as separate from its general straight-line performance to become an issue (which on a dry road is a function of the G-forces causing the wheelrim to tilt, the tread area to be pushed sideways vs the bead and sidewall, the block pattern's optimisation for how it bites into the rough tarmac fore/aft vs side-to-side vs how well it sheds water), the problem might not lie so much with the rubber on the rims as the nut behind the wheel...
If the tread is biting into the snow / sticking to the ice well enough, and you turn the wheel gently, especially if applying a little throttle, I'd kinda hope the back/forth bite would end up pulling the nose around, rather than all of the onus being on the static friction of the rubber resisting side-to-side motion and its slide into dynamic friction...
Dry vs wet vs snow/ice (/mud?) grip physics are all distinct from one another, which is why making a tyre that does all three well is such a challenge. If you drive often enough and far enough on snowbound roads that being able to corner at speed is a significant factor in your overall journey time, perhaps full winters, and moreover studded or knobbly all-terrain rubber (or just some chains?) would be more appropriate?